GLENVIEW, Ill., Dec. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Zenith Electronics Corp. (NYSE: ZE) and GoldStar Co. Ltd. have jointly developed a digital high- definition video cassette recorder for home use, the companies announced today.
The new digital HD-VCR, developed for the Zenith-AT&T "Digital Spectrum Compatible" HDTV system, is designed to record HDTV signals on standard Super-VHS (S-VHS) videocassettes. The HD-VCR also would be able to record and play back programs in today's TV format using standard VHS tapes.
Unlike other proposed high-definition VCRs for consumers, the Zenith-GoldStar VCR prototype is built around "off-the-shelf" S-VHS head technology, making it very cost effective, according to Wayne C. Luplow, Zenith's division vice president, research and development, advanced television systems.
Zenith and GoldStar expect that the VCR could be sold in the United States for about $1,000 beginning in 1996.
Chai-Woo Lee, managing director of GoldStar's Image and Media Laboratory in Seoul, Korea, said that GoldStar has invested more than $5 million in the 18-month HD-VCR development program with Zenith. About 30 GoldStar engineers in Korea and in the United States have been working on this project, he said.
Luplow said, "The first HDTV sets will be able to receive both standard and high-definition signals, so it's crucial that HD-VCRs be able to play standard tapes and record from either source. In addition to enjoying new HD tapes, consumers would still be able to play conventional VHS tapes from their home video library and corner video store."
He explained that a number of factors make the Zenith-GoldStar HD-VCR approach very cost effective:
-- The HD-VCR would record digitally compressed video and audio, allowing use of conventional half-inch home videotape and recording head technology. (This is a much less expensive design than the wide bandwidth recording approach being developed for consumer HD-VCRs in Japan.)
-- To play HD tapes, the HD-VCR would not require video compression decoding, because the HDTV receiver would "decompress" the signal. And, the HD-VCR would not require video encoding and decoding circuitry (like today's VCRs do) to record one program while watching another.
-- Economical digital signal processing is achieved because circuitry in the HDTV set, not in the HD-VCR, would detect and correct errors in tape playback and in signals received over the air or via cable.
For pay-TV applications, the HD-VCR would record scrambled (encrypted) programming for playback only through an HDTV set equipped to descramble the pay-TV program, Luplow explained. "This kind of signal security will finally give Hollywood an incentive to release programming for pay TV and home video simultaneously," he said. The HD-VCR also would make it possible -- for the first time -- to record one encrypted program while watching another without a second decoder box and without compromising signal security.
The HD-VCR would be able to record and playback two hours of high- definition programming on an ST-120 S-VHS cassette (the same time as conventional VHS recording in the Standard Play mode.) A full range of standard VCR features, such as fast forward, reverse, pause and scan would be included in the HD-VCR. It also would feature digital audio with the same high-quality audio found in today's compact disc technology.
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/NOTE TO EDITORS: Lab photos available./
/CONTACT: John Taylor of Zenith Electronics Corp, 708-391-8181, or Ken Lee of GoldStar Co. Ltd., 312-693-0450/
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